Kogan Agora first Chromium OS notebook to ship?

Australian manufacturer Kogan might not be that famous around the world where its brand name is concerned, but that does not mean it doesn’t have a surprise (or two) up its sleeves, no? The Kogan Agora (which used to be a smartphone) is touted to be the first notebook that will run on Google’s open source Chromium OS in the world, where it ought to start making its way to your doorstep from June 7th onwards. This means that the 11.6″ Chromium notebook will be out of the stables a wee bit faster compared to Samsung and Acer, but will this first mover advantage actually overcome the lack of brand name strength as compared to the Korea and Taiwan competitors?

The Kogan Agora will by no means be a high end device where specifications are concerned, as it carries a 1.3GHz Celeron M ULV (ultra-low voltage) CPU and 1GB RAM (which can be upgraded to 4GB, of course). Apart from that, the inclusion of an Intel GS40 chipset ought to be enough for everyday use, what with 256MB of shared memory being held responsible for graphics. Other hardware configurations include a small 30GB SSD, a trio of USB ports, a HDMI port, a memory card reader and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.

You can coonect to a Wi-Fi network, while the battery life is estimated to hold out at just 3.5 hours, perhaps that is an extremely pessimistic estimate – 5 hours might be a better and more conservative figure. The Kogan Agora Chromium notebook can be pre-ordered in Australia and in the UK at AUD349 or £269.